Recipe Roundtable – Corned Beef

My Dad always makes an awesome Chistmas Eve meal for us.  We spend the night there and it’s snowy and cozy.  And because my dad is a fantastic cook, it’s tasty too.  This recipe for Corned Beef comes from one of his Christmas Eve meals and has since become Maybelle’s favorite food.

A note on the meat (otherwise entitled: “Learn from my cheapness”) - make sure it’s not one of those “solution added” cuts.  It should be real meat.  Otherwise, it will be chewy and salty.  Also, throw away the spice packet that sometimes comes with corned beef.  What I’m about to give you is waaaaay better.

Make it ahead of time and keep it refrigerated if you’d like.  It will strengthen the flavor and smell incredible even before it goes into the oven.

• 3-4 pound Point or Blade cut of beef.  (Some people use brisket, but I prefer this cut)
• 2 oranges, sliced
• 2 onions, sliced
• 4 celery stalks cut in half
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoon of dill
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• 12 whole cloves
• 6 whole cinnamon sticks

Layer aluminum foil in a roasting pan, leaving enough so that you can ‘wrap’ the beef up for cooking.  Put half of the everything (except the meat) on the bottom of the pan.

Put the meat on top of this, then put the second half of everything on top.  Close up foil, not too tight.

Bake for 3 1/2 hours at 325, depending on size.  You can look at the packaging to see how many hours exactly the piece of meat should cook.

This weekly feature is co-hosted by http://www.thebigbinder.com/ and http://www.sarahsdeals.net/. Each blog will host it’s own recipe, but share a common linky. The co-hostesses links will appear at the top of the list and you are welcome to join in.

Please link to your ACTUAL POST and not just your home page so people can find it easier. Also please put the recipe title in parentheses to help out the other readers. Old recipe posts are fine. While we appreciate a link back or the addition of the button above, it is NOT required. Thank you for participating!